Crime & Safety

Purse-Snatching Bust in Bryn Mawr, Police Say

Lower Merion Police Department provided the following information; arrests and charges mentioned do not necessarily indicate guilt.

On Monday afternoon, Lower Merion Police Department announced the following incidents from the past week in the Bryn Mawr-Gladwyne area:

Theft: An 18-carat gold black cultured pearl necklace, valued at $41,000, went missing from a home on the 700 block of Spring Mill Road in Villanova sometime between Sept. 15 and Nov. 30, police said.

Purse snatching: A 21-year-old male was arrested following an attempted purse snatching on Dec. 6, in part thanks to two bystanders, police said.

Officers responded to the area of Municipal Parking Lot 10, near Bryn Mawr Hospital, around 1:38 p.m. on Dec. 6, on report of a purse snatching. When police arrived, they observed a 21-year-old West Chester man was being restrained by two other men. According to the victim, she had been sitting on the steps of Bryn Mawr Hospital, when the restrained man grabbed her purse and ran. She immediately ran after the man, shouting that he had stolen her purse, according to the report.

Two uninvolved witnesses chased down the man and were able to restrain him and wait for police to arrive. The purse and everything inside was recovered, including $1,500 in cash, police said. Justin Cook, 21, from West Chester, was arrested and charged with theft and receiving stolen property, police said.

Disorderly conduct: A 20-year-old Villanova student was cited for public intoxication on Dec. 7 after punching a stranger in the face without provocation, police said. The complainant told police that he and two friends had been walking on the 1000 block of W Lancaster Ave. in Rosemont when a 20-year-old man passed them walking west. The same man then walked passed them again going the opposite direction, without saying anything. Shortly thereafter, the same man walked past them again and punched the complainant in the fact, then ran, police said. The victim’s two friends ran after the man and helped restrain him until police arrived, according to the report. The Villanova student had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath and gave no reason for striking the complainant; he refused a PBT test and was cited for public intoxication, police said.

Disorderly conduct: A gas station owner was cited for disorderly conduct on Dec. 7 after brandishing a metal baseball bat at a patron, police said. Around 12:55 a.m. on Dec. 7, an officer observed two men arguing outside the Rosemont Sunoco, with one holding a metal baseball bat, threatening and ordering the other man out of the Sunoco, according to the report. The police officer separated the two men. The patron told the office he was in the store making a purchase, and after he made the purchase, he spoke to the storeowner about a previous incident in which the storeowner had brandished a baseball bat at him. According to the police report, the patron claimed he told the storeowner not to threaten him with a baseball bat again, at which point the storeowner grabbed his baseball bat and chased him out of the store, telling the patron he was going to strike him with it.

The storeowner, on the other hand, told police that the patron was threatening him, and had on multiple occasions, so he told him to leave—at which point the patron became irate and threatened to hit the storeowner, so the storeowner chased him out with a baseball bat, police said. Based on what the officer saw, the storeowner was cited with disorderly conduct for threatening behavior; the officer also told the patron not to return to the store, police said.


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